‘Nobody else is paying attention’: New Spokane billboard warns of last U.S.-Russia nuclear arms treaty expiring Feb. 5 January 13, 2026

The Spokesman-Review

The regional coalition Northwest Against Nuclear Weapons sponsored the billboards through a crowdfunding campaign, program manager Sean Arent said.

“We don’t want to see another arms race,” Arent said. “Spokane has a large community of Marshall Islanders who were impacted (by bomb testing). Spokane has people impacted by Hanford (Nuclear Reservation) … Our whole nation bears the scars of the past arms race.”

Cheryl McDaniel was one speaker at the event Wednesday and a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. She used to sing opera before radiation-induced hypothyroidism degraded her voice, leading her to pursue nursing.

“Dr. Martin Luther King once said, and I quote, ‘There comes a time when silence is betrayal.’ To Rep. (Michael) Baumgartner, Sen. (Patty) Murray, and Sen. (Maria) Cantwell, I say, the New START treaty expires in 22 days,” she said. “The Russians have offered to keep the limits on deployed weapons. Your silence as our leaders is betrayal. We need your voices, all voices, our voices, to fight the threat of nuclear war.”